As the construction industry enters the holiday season, there was almost no Christmas joy for French contractor Vinci, after a bogus press release came close to causing catastrophe in the space of just ten minutes. A hoax statement purporting to come from Vinci hit the company's share price at the tail-end of November. The bogus release - which circulated at 16.05 on 22 November - apparently suggested that there were financial irregularities and that Vinci's finance director was to be fired. Ten minutes after the fake announcement, at 16.15, the company's share price fell by 18%, although an hour later saw a recovery to just below where it started the day. Vinci said the press release appeared to be an elaborately executed plot, although it added that its IT systems had not been hacked. Vinci said it was filing a complaint "against persons unknown".
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